Here is the Mall of Louisiana, currently the largest mall in Louisiana. The mall opened in 1997 and was expanded in 2008 to include a robust outdoor area. Jim Wilson, who developed several Louisiana malls including Belle Prominade developed this mall. The mall is currently anchored by Macy's, JCPenney, Two Dillard's locations. Main Event, Nordstrom Rack, Dick's Sporting Goods, and an AMC Cinema.
Some anchor spots have gone through many changes. Dillard's Women's store and JCPenney have remained the same over the years. Macy's was Foley's, Parisian, and Maison Blanche. Sears closed in 2021 and remains vacant. Dillard's Men's store was originally a McRae's. The mall anchor stores are very nice and were designed to be state of the art as part of the powerhouse mall of the state. This mall helped crush Cortana Mall once the 2008 expansion opened. Cortana Mall is now completely gone with an Amazon facility set to take its place. The first set of photos were taken in March 2021.
This Macy's was originally a Maison Blanche.
As you can see the store looks really nice with the blue tinted windows.
The Macy's and JCPenney court mall entrance.
The Sears store that closed in April 2021.
The original Dillard's store which is now the Women's store.
The Dillard's Men's store that was originally a McRae's.
Food court and JCPenney wing off in the distance.
Main Event
Looking down the outdoor corridor leading to the food court of the mall.
Looking down the other side of the same corridor towards the AMC cinema.
The AMC cinema was on limited hours, in early 2021 Louisiana still had heavy COVID restrictions.
The far cluster of big box stores.
The design of the outdoor corridor here looks really good.
As you can see, plenty of big brands to draw shoppers in addition to what the indoor mall offers.
Dick's Sporting Goods and Nordstrom Rack.
This side of Main Event was once a short-lived HH Gregg store. It was the only HH Gregg store that I actually visited. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from that visit.
One of the small mall logos in the parking lot.
One of the road signs for the mall. The Sears closing sale was advertised on the digital billboard in the far background.
Now for the inside of the mall. One good thing about this mall is that it still has the same look as it did in 1997. This is the center court with the food court and carousel.
The inside of the mall feels a bit small in comparison to what I remembered. The center of the mall has a long straight corridor that bends slightly at each end of the mall with a small extension to meet the anchor entrances. This view is facing JCPenney and Macy's.
The Macy's entrance. As you can see the corridor extensions that lead to the anchors are pretty small. The JCPenney entrance is to my right.
The entrance to JCPenney.
I like the way they painted this ceiling. The ceiling on the opposite side of the mall has a similar look.
The Macy's entrance up-close. As you can see there is a bit more to the design here than you normally see at Macy's locations.
Looking from the Macy's entrance towards the court area.
The JCPenney mall entrance is pretty standard for the late 1990's.
The Macy's/JCPenney court once again.
H&M takes up a good chunk of space in the center corridor of the mall.
Back to the center court of the mall.
It is really something you should see in person, very well done. Sears by the way is connected to this part of the mall just behind where I am standing for this photo.
Looking towards the two Dillard's stores.
Dillard's Women's store straight ahead, Men's Store to the left.
The Dillard's court has a nicely painted ceiling as well.
The playground in front of the Dillard's Men's Store.
The Dillard's Women's Store has a pretty standard 1990's entrance as well.
This is the now famous Blue Zoo Aquarium while it was under construction. So why is this place famous? Well a few months after my visit, a 12-foot long Burmese Python named Cara escaped and was hidden for a couple of days inside of the mall.
.jpg)
The mall entrance near the Dillard's locations.
Now for a directory view. As you can see the layout of the mall is a bit small. The actual mall is about 800,000 square feet so the 2008 addition doubled the size of the mall. In comparison, Cortana Mall was 1.4 million square feet. Cortana Mall was also one floor with two floor anchors, while the Mall of Louisiana is two floors throughout the mall building.
A look into the mall from the mall entrance.
Another view of the Dillard's court.
Second floor view of the Dillard's Women's Store.
Looking towards the center court from the Dillard's court.
As you can see, the inside of the Dillard's Men's Store is different than you would normally find. I was not too familiar with McRae's, but the store looks pretty nice.
A couple of shots inside of the store.
The escalator/elevator area of the store especially looks really fancy.
Back into the mall as we head back to the center court.
Nawlings sports was a really cool store. Lots of Louisiana sports memorabilia and gear.
A touch of neon to go with the 1990's atmosphere of the center court.
A trip to the mall would not be complete without a trip to Sears. The store closed at 6pm while the mall stayed open until 7pm. Don't worry, we got this store covered!
Click below to see the visit of the store. We also have a visit from April of 2021, stay tuned for that post.
Now for some food court shots.
This is one of the largest indoor carousels operating in the United States.
The food court was filled about a dozen eateries. If you don't like what they have here, there are several sit-down restaurant options just outside.
From the food court looking towards the Sears entrance.
One more look at the carousel.
A super-bright Bath and Body Works as we go back downstairs.
A strange selfie setup just below the escalators.
Now we will move towards the outdoor corridor. This section of the mall reminds me a lot of the Woodlands Mall.
The outside area was a bit quiet on our visit. A lot of the stores out here were keeping limited hours due to COVID.
Not just one fountain!
But two fountains outside. Actually, three as I found during my next visit in April.
A status symbol of the mall, an Apple store.
The sun sets on this quiet evening.
Now for some night photos of the mall and outdoor corridors.
Mall entrance near the Two Dillard's stores.
Mall entrance near Macy's/ JCPenney.
It is hard to believe this was an HH Gregg location.
Food court mall entrance.
A look down the outdoor corridor towards the food court entrance of the mall.
April 2021 visit.
JCPenney
The weird side of the Sears anchor.
Macy's
Here is the third outdoor fountain that I missed on my last visit in March.
The fleur de lis logo in the food court area. Best seen while taking the escalators down facing the mall entrance.
The corridor just below the food court. The selfie station was gone so you could see the corridor much better now.
The Sears Mall entrance. I was a bit difficult to get both floors due to the enormous Mr. Goldman sign.
The anchor directional signage.
The Mall of Louisiana is an excellent mall with a lot of choices. Filling the Sears anchor is going to be a challenge for the mall. Belk seems like the obvious choice, but they already have a location in the city not too far away. The mall is very successful and has a bright future, if you are in Baton Rouge this mall a must-see.
This mall certainly has many elements I would expect from a higher-end mall that was built in the 1990s. In some ways, there are some similar elements here that exist at malls such as The Woodlands Mall and even The Galleria even though this mall isn’t quite up to The Galleria’s standards. I can certainly see how Cortana Mall would have struggled competing against this mall. In a town with a large university, I’m sure this mall still gets a fairly steady stream of shoppers.
ReplyDeleteThe carousel at the mall reminds me a bit of the carousel that was installed at Almeda Mall and then later moved to San Jacinto Mall. I’m guessing the one at the Mall of Louisiana is bigger though, but otherwise the design is similar. Elements like a carousel are certainly becoming more rare at malls today. The neon-like ‘Spring’ sign by the rusty Mall of Louisiana truck is an interesting touch. I’m guessing that is a modern neon sign that uses LEDs. I’m starting to see more signs which look kind of like that.
I’m not familiar with McRae’s either. The interior of that Dillard’s looks a little less fancy than what I’d expect from a Dillard’s, but it’s still pretty nice. It’s certainly more upscale than a Sears even though we know from your previous post about the Sears here that it was a pretty nice Sears kind of like the Pasadena Town Square one. The other Dillard’s looks very typical for a Dillard’s from this era. The JCPenney also looks like a fairly standard 1990s JCPenney. The Macy’s has a very odd exterior. It probably looked really fancy in 1997, but it appears Macy’s is not doing a great job maintaining the place. It looks like it could use a good cleaning or a paint job. Granted, that could be said about a lot of Macy’s stores around the country.
Some of the elements at this mall, such as the green trim tiles in the courtyard, do scream 1997 to me. I suppose that is long enough now that it is starting to feel dated in a way. I was at a Whataburger by the Willowbrook Mall Best Buy a few months ago and they have some green trim around the dining room and I did get the sense that I was being transported back to the 1990s. I’m not sure if that would have felt retro to me 10 years ago, but by this point, it is feeling retro. That said, it’s neat to see that some of the original features of the mall are lingering around. While it might look a bit dated, it’s probably better looking than what they would put in there now to make it look modern.
I did not hear about that loose Burmese Python! That’s quite a strange situation. Did you hear about the jewelry store burglars at Town East Mall in Mesquite who got into the jewelry store from within the empty Sears? It made the news here even. The jewelry store was next to the Sears and so they were able to get through the wall from the Sears. I’m guessing Sears isn’t hiring enough security for these empty stores and they might get some pressure from mall owners to do more to ensure the security of the malls.
This mall absolutely has many similarities to The Woodlands Mall. The Woodlands Mall is one of the few malls that still have a carousel as well as Memorial City Mall. The design and setup of the mall is very similar also. Things have not changed very much at all inside of the mall itself. The fact that they embraced the lifestyle center addition is what has cemented the mall as the place to shop in Baton Rouge. I forgot to mention the fact that this mall is closer to LSU than Cortana was.
DeleteI only went into the Sears and Dillard's Men's Store so I can't speak on the condition of the other anchors. I am guessing that the Sears building had a recent paint job since it looked really clean in comparison to the stores from that era like Lake Charles and Pasadena. I am not sure if I mentioned that the Lake Charles Sears was completely demolished, and the site is just a grassy area now.
There are not many malls with live animals anymore so the snake getting out is something very strange to hear about. I did hear about the Sears and jewelry store burglary at Town East Mall. I guess the owners of the Sears building have not kept up with the security system.
The former HHGregg (originally Borders) building was expanded on the south and east sides before opening as Main Event. So it did not look like that as HHGregg or Borders.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment and clarification of the modifications to the building. I remember the entrance to HHGregg was facing the East parking lot.
Delete